Mary Ann Mobley was born in 1937 in Brandon, Mississippi. After serving her reign as Miss America 1959, Mobley embarked on a career in both film and television. She signed a five-year contract with MGM. She made her first five television appearances on Burke’s Law from 1963-1965, and went on to make multiple appearances on Perry Mason; Love, American Style; and Fantasy Island. She had a recurring role as Maggie McKinney Drummond on Diff’rent Strokes in the final season of the series, having taken over the role from Dixie Carter. She would later guest star as Karen Delaporte, a snide head of a historical society who crossed swords with Dixie’s character, Julia Sugarbaker, in Carter’s later series, Designing Women. She also made appearances on Match Game ’76 as one of the celebrity panelists. She ended her television career in 1994 with an appearance on Hardball. She was Awarded the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year — Actress in 1965. She was active in many charitable causes and was awarded the Outstanding Young Woman of the Year Award in 1966 by Lady Bird Johnson. Most recently, she appeared in the documentary film Miss America which aired on PBS in 2002. Mary Ann Mobley was crowned Miss America 1959, the first Mississippian to achieve this honor, winning the national talent award. Mobley joined her husband, Gary Collins, as co-host of the 1989 Miss America pageant, in September 1988 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the 30th anniversary year of her own Miss America pageant victory.

Mary Ann Mobley was a member of Chi Omega sorority at the University of Mississippi and in 1981 was inducted into the University of Mississippi Alumni Hall of Fame. She married actor and television host Gary Collins in 1967. The couple separated in 2011 but reconciled and were married and living in Biloxi, Mississippi when he died on October 13, 2012. Collins and Mobley had one daughter together, Mary Clancy Collins. Mobley was also step-mother to Melissa Collins and Guy William Collins, her husband’s children from his first marriage. Mobley had Crohn’s disease, and had at times been an activist for improvements in treatment. She was treated in 2009 for Stage 3 breast cancer. Mary Ann Mobley died at her home in Beverly Hills, California, on December 9, 2014, aged 77, from breast cancer.